Bord Pleanála acknowledges that the current air pollution burden in Poolbeg from PM-10 air pollution particles is already at the dangerous level of 50 µg/m3. A Poolbeg Incinerator will increase air pollution above 50 µg/m3, increasing the number of deaths from heart problems and possibly from various cancers.

For Ringsend/Poolbeg the existing air pollution level causes the risk of death fromdeep vein thrombosisto be ten to twenty times higher than in a relatively clean-air suburb (see chart: read this science). Added air pollution from an incinerator will increase the relative death risk towards the 20 to 40 times higher level.

Politicians have ignored the science, ignored the scientists in Bord Pleanala and EPA-Ireland, recklessly sidelined Health Impact Reports and decided Poolbeg is an excellent location for further toxic air pollution from a Waste-To-Toxics incinerator! It's a safe bet the politicians did this via the director level political cronies they appointed to Bord Pleanala and in EPA.

Dublin City Council's Poolbeg Sewage Factory is managed by politicians. A Poolbeg incinerator managed to the same incompetent standard will increase the relative death risk by20 to 40 times (even 80 times).

You can not prove air pollution particles have damaged your health.

Deadliest Particles are Smaller Than PM-10

The May 2008 Italian research is for PM10 particles. Governments make sure not to measure the even more deadly PM2.5 and PM1.0 particles. This is cynical preparation for the "no evidence" excuse used by industry experts, a tobacco industry best-practice.

The EPA-Ireland website does not list site-specific-sources of deadly PM pollution at Poolbeg. The EPA-USA has similar data on-line.

Footnote: The Irish Independent reported in early-2009 that the former Ten Year Director of EPA-Ireland had been hired by Covanta/Energy-Answers. That West Dublin incinerator was cancelled.

__________________________________________Science

Vol. 168 No. 9, May 12, 2008Original Investigation

Exposure to Particulate Air Pollution and Risk of Deep Vein Thrombosis

Result
Each increase of 10 µg/m3in PM10 was associated with a 70% increase in deep vein thrombosis risk.

___________________________________

The chart demonstrates the observed relationship between the relative risk of DVT and the level of particulate matter of less than 10 µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10) in the year preceding the diagnosis.

These results suggest a linear relationship between exposure and risk, though the 95% confidence intervals (shaded areas) are wide at the extremes of exposure. Risk is depicted in comparison with a reference value of 12.0 µg/m3 (minimum observed PM10 level).

The histogram in the bottom part illustrates the density of exposure distribution for air pollution.

Risk estimates are adjusted for age, sex, year of diagnosis, area of residence, body mass index, education, current use of oral contraceptives or hormone therapy, Leiden V or prothrombin mutations, season, and ambient temperature.

Newspapers in Ireland are in serious financial trouble. During the Property Pyramid Scheme mid-week newspapers had 50 pages of guff posing as journalism. A regenerated Pyramid Scheme in Poolbeg would generate extra advertising revenue from speculators and from NAMA-DDDA.

" with the financial support of the government ... the project can be restored to financial health and our mandate completed". - Absurd DDDA Hierarchy.

DDDA's mighty fine work with Anglo-Irish created a €250 million taxpayer liability - this totally removes any mandate DDDA once possessed. The alleged governance expert seems to possess the unbelievable view that even more taxpayer money should be diverted from hospitals to restart DDDA's scheming in Poolbeg. DDDA has already lost €250 Million. Under the one remaining PD electee Hospitals are closing wards (Mullingar).

Absurdly for an investigative newspaper the article on the alleged governance expert totally omits and does not explain why the governance expert and DDDA's Hierarchy permitted DDDA's account to be withheld for 320 days until the very day of publication of Judge Murphy's Report into the cover-up by the Church Hierarchy of Child Rape. It takes a totally unreformed hierarchy to manage the news by cynically taking cover behind the cover of another dodgy hierarchy. Lots of fine words - but apparently nothing beyond the purely cosmetic has changed. Ask Bob Geldof about The Purple & The Pinstripe of The Banana Republic.

The purple and the pinstripeMutely shake their heads

A silence shrieking volumesA violence worse than they condemn

Stab you in the back yeahLaughing in your face

Glad to see the place againIt's a pity nothing's changed

Curiously a sister paper (Herald:Friday, Dec 4) just regurgitated some very old news about Lar & Seanie and the well known story of an expensed trip to the City with the Banana Bar (DDDA's reformed board now trains staff with mangoes; bananas are out in the brave new world of ethical governance). Lots of names are mentioned by the Herald. Why? To divert attention from something more important? Have whistle-blowers been fired or scapegoated?

The Irish Independent's unnamed author does not mention these sample and continuing perceived or potential conflicts of interest at DDDA:

ARUP paid by DDDA for consulting at IGB

ARUP within DDDA's labyrinth governance structure.

McNamara's sisters company with partner within DDDA's labryinth governance structure.

McNamara a speculator with DDDA at the IGB site (€450 million taxpayer hit).

No doubt the organisations are fully above board. However how can DDDA with its record take this risk with public perceptions?

"Ireland's leading corporate governance expert"

Is this oxymoronic spin? The article repeats the sound-bite that "Brennan, professor of accountancy at UCD, has long been recognised as Ireland's leading corporate governance expert".

This may or may not be true. No evidence is presented for this opinion. This apparent spin is continuously trotted out by Green-FF spin-meisters without supporting evidence. Perhaps it is Ireland's Financial Regulator who holds this opinion. However in the current context of national bankruptcy surely the fired financial regulator would acknowledge that 'Ireland's leading corporate governance expert' is a seriously unfunny oxymoron.

Without validation the statement is simply perceived to be a part of The Big Lie technique. It only serves to reinforce the established perceptions, however fair or otherwise, that DDDA is rotten to the core. DDDA still appears to treat the public with contempt, like their sister hierarchy.

"She plans to introduce a draconian ethics code for board members "

.

The article does not examine why sometime-in-the-future standards appear to be restricted only to board members. What about the Tamanny Hall challenge - the perception or possibility that DDDA-embedded councillors or their parties will trade votes for 'social housing' allocated by DDDA in sites where DDDA has total power to issue non-contestable planning permits. The social housing will rescue developers using taxpayer money.

"In fairness to Brennan, she isn't afraid to practice what she preaches".

There is again no evidence for this statement. Is it true? Forensic accounting and corporate governance demand evidence.

"Soon after being appointed to the DDDA she quit as a director of Ulster Bank."

How is that a virtue? The article omits to mention why it took several months before the minimal action finally happened, and there is no examination about the possibilites that non-formal relationships will continue.

There is no mention that Ulster Bank financed a large property in Poolbeg (The Fabrizia site which ZOE Developments acquired for a song from AIB after AIB curiously acquired the 12 acres of public beach for an 'AIB sports field').

Associations with the PD-lead salty-dream for turning Poolbeg's flood-plains into the local Island of Ireland by Dubai World are not examined at all. This is most curious.

Perhaps Shane Ross could take another look at the DDDA to follow up on his excellent work in early 2008 exposing the DDDA's now accepted to be dodgy governance.

Practising what she preaches

Accountancy professor is putting her stamp on a troubled semi-state

Saturday December 05 2009

The disastrous results from the Dublin Dockland Development Authority, which has written off €186m against bad property investments, has turned the spotlight on its chairman, UCD professor Niamh Brennan. With its balance sheet wiped out, the DDDA will need state support if it is to survive.When she was appointed DDDA chairman last March it was widely believed that the semi-state body, which was established in 1997 to oversee the regeneration of Dublin's docklands, was in trouble. However, it was not until it belatedly published its 2008 results last week that the full extent of the docklands disaster became apparent. The DDDA's results weren't bad. They were utterly catastrophic. On top of operating losses of €27m, it wrote down its property assets by a massive €186m to bring its total 2008 losses to €213m. As a result, its assets now exceed its liabilities by €48m. If the DDDA were privately-owned it would have long since gone bust. It is only the prospect of state support which is keeping it in business, something Brennan herself implicitly acknowledged when she stated that: "Despite the steps we're taking, the situation is clearly very serious."However, with the financial support of the government and with a radically different approach to the job in hand, the board believes that the project can be restored to financial health and our mandate completed."So how did things go so utterly wrong at the DDDA?The DDDA is a unique hybrid. Not alone is it a state development agency like the IDA or Shannon Development, it is also, uniquely, its own planning authority. With 1,300 acres of prime real estate to redevelop, conferring planning powers on the DDDA might have seemed like a good idea in 1997. Unfortunately, this combination of virtually unfettered planning powers and the greatest property bubble in Irish history, something which could not have been foreseen in 1997, was to sow the seeds of the disaster which has overwhelmed the authority. What could and should have been foreseen were the potential risks of appointing not one but two directors of Anglo Irish Bank, Lar Bradshaw and Sean FitzPatrick, to the DDDA board. Bradshaw, who served as DDDA chairman until April 2007, was also a director of Anglo from 2004 to 2009, while FitzPatrick, who also stepped down from the DDDA board in 2007, was Anglo chief executive from 1986 to 2004 and chairman from 2005 to 2009. Both were forced to quit the Anglo board in December 2008 when huge concealed loans from Anglo to FitzPatrick came to light.However, it wasn't until January 2007 when the DDDA teamed up with Bernard McNamara, Derek Quinlan and Davy Private Clients to pay an astronomical €412m for the 24-acre former Irish Glass Bottle factory in Ringsend, that the full risks posed by the DDDA's incestuous relationship with Anglo became apparent.The consortium, which was called Becbay, subsequently paid a further €30m to decontaminate the site. Even at the time it was widely reckoned that the DDDA and its partners had massively over-paid for the Glass Bottle site. Even more worrying was the fact that Anglo, lent Becbay €288m to help fund the purchase. It has emerged that both Bradshaw and FitzPatrick, while declaring their interest in advance, participated in the October 2006 DDDA board meeting which approved its involvement in the deal. Now the chickens have come home to roost. The 2008 DDDA annual report reveals that estate agents Lisney recently valued the Irish Glass Bottle site at just €50m, a mere 12pc of the original purchase price. As a result, the DDDA, which has a 26pc stake in the Becbay consortium, has written down its Glass Bottle site investment by a massive €117m. Almost three years after the deal was completed important questions still remain unanswered. Appearing before the Oireachtas Environment Committee this week Brennan didn't pull her punches, remarking that it was "absolutely clear that there were systematic conflicts of interest". She then went on to say: "I'm not fully clear myself as to what was going on behind the scenes". Ever since details of the Irish Glass Bottle site debacle began to emerge in 2008 it has been clear that the DDDA was in urgent need of some serious house-cleaning. Unfortunately, things didn't exactly get off to a good start. Bradshaw's successor as DDDA chairman, Donal O'Connor, followed him on to the Anglo board in June 2008. When FitzPatrick was forced to quit as Anglo chairman he was replaced by O'Connor, who resigned from the the DDDA board.O'Connor's replacement as DDDA chairman, businessman Gerry McCaughey, lasted all of three weeks before being forced to resign when it was revealed that he had, perfectly legally, avoided paying capital gains tax on the €67m sale of his business, Century Homes, to Kingspan in 2005.With the affairs of the authority threatening to degenerate into a farce, Environment Minister John Gormley couldn't afford to get it wrong again.Instead, he crossed party lines and appointed Niamh Brennan, the wife of his long-time political rival Michael McDowell, to the DDDA chair. Brennan, professor of accountancy at UCD, has long been recognised as Ireland's leading corporate governance expert. During the boom years not many people in either business or government took the subject terribly seriously. Brennan, whose personal style is best described as earnest, could expect a respectful hearing whenever she called for higher corporate governance standards -- which was quite often -- but not much more.Now that the true cost of our lackadaisical attitude towards low standards in high places has become apparent, Brennan's calls for higher standards of corporate governance no longer seem so quixotic. In fairness to Brennan, she isn't afraid to practice what she preaches.Soon after being appointed to the DDDA she quit as a director of Ulster Bank. Having once been described as someone who never served on a committee that she couldn't dominate, Brennan quickly moved to put her stamp on the DDDA with chief executive Paul Maloney announcing his "early retirement" in July.She plans to introduce a draconian ethics code for board members. They will in future be barred from accepting any hospitality from or socialising with people who might have a business relationship with the authority. Whether this will have any real impact or merely amounts to closing the stable door after the proverbial horse has bolted remains to be seen. With the DDDA's Becbay partners being beaten dockets, it is likely to find itself on the receiving end of several legal actions. With its implicit state guarantee the DDDA offers those who lost money on the Ringsend deal the best chance of recovering at least some of their investment. Already the Davy investors are suing McNamara and he, in turn, is suing the DDDA.Stand by for plenty more legal activity in the months ahead.Having lectured us for decades on the need for higher standards of corporate governance, Brennan now has the opportunity to put her theories into practice.

Is the above statement tresspassing on a lie? Or simply not fully truthful? Or just part of the spin process known as The Big Lie?

The Greens have stated the "EPA is utterly compromised" [Boyle]. EPA's "independent" Board contains a former industry employee (Burke of Indaver). An ex-EPA Director has worked to promote the Poolbeg Incinerator and the failed West Dublin Incinerator.

Green Party TD Dan Boyle said today, The appointment of Ms. Burke, having worked with Indaver Ireland, the company proposing the development of a domestic waste incinerator at Carranstown, County Meath and a toxic waste incineration at Ringaskiddy, Cork, utterly compromises the position of the EPA as a body seen by the public as being independent and impartial.

Dáil debates

Wednesday, 2 December 2009

I thank the Acting Chairman for the opportunity to raise this matter which is of great importance in my constituency. It is also significant for the people of Dublin and nationally. It relates to the implications of the decision by Dublin City Council, through public private partnership, to commence the construction of an incinerator in the Poolbeg area on 14 December.

I am more than disappointed with the Minister, Deputy John Gormley’s behaviour concerning this proposed incinerator in the past two years since he entered the Department of the Environment. When he took up office, I had high hopes and expectations. The high standards he set for his predecessor in Government in our mutual constituency, the then Minister, Michael McDowell, made it very clear that the Minister, Deputy Gormley, expected nothing less from Mr. McDowell, as a member of Cabinet, than to put a stop to the proposed incinerator. In March 2005, the Minister, Deputy Gormley, said the time had come for the Minister to stop bleating and deliver to his constituents as promised.

It is clear to me there is more than one sheep in Dublin South-East because there has been plenty of bleating from this Minister over the course of the past two years and many years prior to that when he was a very vocal and outspoken Opposition Deputy who was clearly opposed to this incinerator. It is a pity that the high standards the Minister set for the former Minister when he was in office appear not to apply to him in his high office now.

He has had two opportunities. The first was in the original programme for Government which was negotiated in 2007. I put it on the record then and I called on the Minister to seek agreement from his colleagues in Cabinet to commit to stopping the incinerator at Poolbeg. He failed to do so, but he had a second opportunity some months ago. Again, I hoped and expected that something would be achieved on that occasion, but, yet again, no agreement was secured at Cabinet level. On two occasions the Minister has failed the people of Dublin South-East and has failed me as his colleague because I held him in very high regard.

On 26 November, the company which was contracted to build the incinerator, Covanta Europe, lodged a notice with Dublin City Council to begin construction. The plan is to start on 14 December. I would like to know what the Minister plans to do about this. There were plenty of reports in the media in recent weeks stating that Dublin City Council has threatened legal action against the Government if it acts to interfere with the process as set out by the council. Has the Minister given any consideration to whether there is an opportunity for the Government to initiate legal proceedings, for example, with an injunction to prevent this preposterous monstrous incinerator from going ahead? Has he consulted the Attorney General?

I reiterate my point. The approval to build this incinerator will create a monster. The Minister, Deputy Gormley, was very vocal on this issue until 2007 when he became a member of the Cabinet. It is intended that the incinerator will have the capacity to burn 600,000 tonnes of waste on an annual basis. That is far too much. The report carried out by An Bord Pleanála inspector recommended to the board that the capacity of this incinerator should be reduced and, at very minimum, that it should not go ahead as a 600,000 tonne-eating furnace in its proposed format. That was ignored by the board of An Bord Pleanála.

If we are to take the Minister seriously in his role, both as a constituency Deputy for Dublin South-East and as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, surely the blatant and flagrant ignoring of the recommendations of the internal inspector’s report to An Bord Pleanála merited investigation by him.The Minister had the power and authority to do this but failed to act. I am very disappointed by that. The Minister is in the process of appointing somebody to initiate a review under the powers afforded to him by section 224 of the Local Government Act. Clearly, however, this is an investigation that will be carried out after the horse has bolted. According to a response the Minister gave less than two weeks ago to a parliamentary question I tabled, he had not appointed anybody to carry out the review at that point. I am not aware that he has appointed anybody since then. He may enlighten the House now. Does the Minister propose to appoint somebody after the trucks have trundled down to Poolbeg to begin construction? Will it be in January after the foundations have been laid?

I do not understand the Minister’s motive or purpose, which appears to be futile. If something is not done before 14 December, we can hang up our boots and regard the development as going ahead. That the Minister has failed to address this is a shocking indictment of him, bearing in mind that he has been in one of the highest offices in the land for more than two years.

The Irish Waste Management Association agrees with my point on this matter. Any objective observer will see quite clearly that, by having an incinerator of this magnitude, we are disincentivising recycling and waste reduction and negating all the values the Minister’s party and he, as its leader, have espoused for many years. That is very disappointing.

John Gormley (Minister, Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government; Dublin South East, Green Party) Link to this

I was on a television programme some nights ago being harangued by members of Fine Gael who were telling me I should do more about floods. In the audience was a Fine Gael councillor who had rezoned land in a flood plain. I now feel like I did on that night because, as Deputy Creighton will know, it was her party that introduced the legislation to provide for incineration and her party, along with other Opposition parties, that voted for this proposal in 1998. Those are the facts and the difficulties with which I must deal.

As the Deputy is aware, waste management infrastructure projects are advanced by private sector service providers or by local authorities. It is a matter for the promoters of such projects to seek and obtain the necessary regulatory approvals, i.e. planning permission and a waste licence. In carrying out their functions, planning authorities, including An Bord Pleanála, and the EPA in regard to waste licensing, act independently of the Minister.Similarly, the commencement notice is a matter for the local authority concerned and its private partner.

Since taking office, I have continually stressed my twin environmental priorities of dealing with climate change issues and ensuring that we make the necessary quantum leap in how we manage our waste. We must explore the full range of technical solutions in addition to modifying our behaviour in support of sustainable waste management. Undue emphasis on incineration as the cornerstone of waste management policy is detrimental to the development of alternative solutions and the transition to sustainable management of waste and resources. In particular, I am concerned that the provision of excess incinerator capacity can create an economic incentive to send waste to incineration which could effectively have been dealt with by reuse or recycling.

As a first step in my approach to modernising and reorienting the waste management sector, I arranged for an international consortium of consultants to undertake a comprehensive study on the waste sector, to cover a wide range of issues which will help identify how best to proceed with further efforts to reduce waste levels, improve recycling rates and deliver equitable and cost-effective waste management solutions. On 19 November, I published the consultants’ report. This will be the launching pad for the policies we now need to mark a new departure in our approach to waste management.

I am discussing with my colleagues in Government proposals to give effect to recommendations of the waste management policy review which will, inter alia, ensure the proper ordering of the waste collection and wider waste management market. I want to provide certainty for those in the waste management sector and a framework within which the necessary legislative changes can be brought forward.

The quantities of residual waste currently being collected by the Dublin local authorities would not be sufficient to meet the put-or-pay requirement in the incinerator contract into which Dublin City Council has entered. We have recently seen further increases in recycling rates in Dublin with a corresponding drop in residual waste volumes. Importantly, the recommendations of the report published on 19 November, which I intend to implement, will have the effect of further reducing the volumes of residual waste generated and driving more waste towards recycling.

I am, therefore, concerned that the proposed incinerator will prove to be seriously oversized and that a liability for the ratepayer and taxpayer may ultimately arise. Dublin City Council is in a 25-year contract in regard to the incinerator and any liability is, therefore, potentially very substantial. In these circumstances, I have decided that the most appropriate course of action is to appoint an authorised person under section 224 of the Local Government Acts to conduct a full review of the financial implications of the project for the State in the event that the incinerator is oversized vis-À-vis the quantities of residual waste available in the Dublin area and the quantities controlled by Dublin City Council.

December 2, 2009

Quinlan was one of the best-known faces of the property boom, leading investors such as Riverdance pair Moya Doherty and John McColgan into a series of mega deals across the world. In 2004 he famously wiped the eye of Saudi prince AlWaleed bin Talal when he paid €1.1bn to buy the Savoy Hotel Group.

Subsequent deals saw Quinlan-fronted groups buy the €1bn-plus Jury's Inns as well as taking a stake in the controversial €412m Irish Glass Bottlers site in Ringsend.

Quinlan also made enormous personal investments. As the credit markets snapped shut in 2007, he bought a stake in the €1.1bn Citigroup tower in London's Canary Wharf.

Quinlan has put a number of his personal investments on the market in recent months.

Last July, he stepped down as chairman of his investment firm Quinlan Private to concentrate on "private investments".

Just a few days after the 2008 accounts, DDDA is back spinning. Or possibly totally lying in line with DDDA-Anglo-Irish-Bank practice. DDDA says taxpayers must cough up only €250 Million to cover 2010 losses engineered by the Fools & Crooks. Using government-approved NAMA-Enron-accounting the true figure is thus exactly €999.99 million plus interest, a liability which in no way will be withheld from the public.

Like the other obstructionist arschbishops DDDA's arschbishop freely admits to feeling the pain of the people. DDDA's Governance Arschbishop freely admits DDDA is laced with conflicts of interest. But that's all OK because the conflicts of interest are not really serious because they 'do not result in financial rewardsto board members' none of whom has ever owned or directly profited from a flying pig.

So as implied, who outside the board actually gets the money and other benefits from the finally acknowledged conflicts of interest?

Architecture friends-of-friends of the board?

ARUP's friends?

Who gets the insider tips on autocratic planning diktats?

Who gets the insider jobs?

Which TDs and Councillors control social housing for supine local votes?

What about the deaths from €250 Million worth of closed hospital beds?

ETC.

The conditioned-monkey culture at DDDA has not been rooted out, said the bishop in De Bananen Bar. Nevertheless in the total absence of even a shred of evidence the governance arschbishop brass-necked this absurdity:

'the dynamics of the [DDDA] board had changed and was different to how it was in the past.'

The governance arschbishop thus admits the monkeys are in a different tree looking for mangoes instead of the usual bananas.

[Image: KPMG Executive Channel Search For DDDA CEO].

As we speak DDDA is looking for another CEO for the scapegoat opportunity. The 'dynamics of the board of monkeys has changed and is different to how it was in the past'. Because this time they will be much more careful.

DDDA chair signals further losses

Tuesday, 1 December 2009 18:12

The charwoman of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority has told an Oireachtas committee the organisation has written down the value of some of its property by millions of euro and that the body will be in deficit to the tune of nearly €250 million next year.

The huge losses come after the Authority ,whose board included by directors of Anglo Irish Bank, engaged in massive property speculation. The losses will now have to bepicked up by the taxpayer.

Charwoman Niamh Brennan told a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Heritage and Local Government that with time, effort, commitment and focus the business of the DDDA will be brought back on track.

She said, though, that this would not happen overnight, and there was no magic wand for the DDDA.Ms Brennan said no final decision had yet been made on planning regarding the new headquarters of Anglo Irish Bank. She also said the DDDA has new pension liabilities of €6.5m, which she said is less of a deficit than last year, when it amounted to €7.3m.

She said the dynamics of the board had changed and was different to how it was in the past. Ms Brennan said that, while there are some conflicts of interest, they are not systematic and do not result in financial rewards to board members.

The meeting was called following the publication last week of the DDDA's annual report and accounts which revealed that the Authority ran an operating deficit of €27m in 2008 as opposed to a €3m surplus in 2007.

Story from RTÉ Business:
http://www.rte.ie/business/2009/1201/ddda.html